3) I also got a little detail on Carl Ernst's death in 1822: it was quick, in that he was active during the day (maybe visiting friends?) and ate with a good appetite, and died of a stroke at 11 pm. The author of the letter calls it a lucky death. There are a couple words I can't read, but something along the lines of: he normally went to bed at 10 pm, but that day he had stayed up until 10:30 talking with friends, and then [rode home?] and didn't stay talking any later.
So I'm guessing he got home just in time to die and didn't die in the street or at a friend's house? Something like that. There are 9 whole words of which I can't make out much more than "ritt[?] er auf[?] dem XXXX sXXXXd mit[?] dem kXXXXX" without spending a whole lot more time on this than I'm willing to right now.
2025 Mildred has better handwriting decipherment skills than 2024 Mildred, and since I got to the part of the Peter draft where I'm working on his son's death, I came back to this passage. Still hard but now doable. This is what it says:
He had a very fortunate death, by the way, because he stayed up, although he usually went to bed promptly at 10 o'clock, and talked with Madame Telle and M[...] At half past 10, he nodded his head while sitting on the sofa and said nothing more.
So I guess the "fortunate" part is that he didn't die alone: he had friends over and was enjoying himself when the stroke hit, and the stroke was instantaneous. (We talked last time about an instantaneous death being okay in his case, because the need to make a proper confession wasn't imperative.)
Indeed. It actually reminded me a bit of Diderot's death, the big difference being that Diderot knew he was terminally ill, and Karl's death evidently struck out of the blue:
The next morning Diderot felt better than he had for months. After spending the morning receiving visits...the philosophe sat down with Toinette to his first proper meal in weeks: soup, boiled mutton, and some chicory. Having eaten well, Diderot then looked at Toinette and asked her to pass him an apricot. Fearing that he had already eaten too much, she tried to dissuade him from continuing the meal. Diderot reportedly replied wistfully: “What the devil type of harm can it do to me now?” Popping some of the forbidden fruit in his mouth, he then rested his head on his hand, reached out for some more stewed cherries, and died. While having anything but a heroic death à la Socrates, Diderot had nonetheless expired in a way that was perfectly compatible with his philosophy: without a priest, with humor, and while attempting to eke out one last bit of pleasure from life.
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timeasmymeasure
Karl Ernst's death
Date: 2025-05-03 07:57 am (UTC)3) I also got a little detail on Carl Ernst's death in 1822: it was quick, in that he was active during the day (maybe visiting friends?) and ate with a good appetite, and died of a stroke at 11 pm. The author of the letter calls it a lucky death. There are a couple words I can't read, but something along the lines of: he normally went to bed at 10 pm, but that day he had stayed up until 10:30 talking with friends, and then [rode home?] and didn't stay talking any later.
So I'm guessing he got home just in time to die and didn't die in the street or at a friend's house? Something like that. There are 9 whole words of which I can't make out much more than "ritt[?] er auf[?] dem XXXX sXXXXd mit[?] dem kXXXXX" without spending a whole lot more time on this than I'm willing to right now.
2025 Mildred has better handwriting decipherment skills than 2024 Mildred, and since I got to the part of the Peter draft where I'm working on his son's death, I came back to this passage. Still hard but now doable. This is what it says:
He had a very fortunate death, by the way, because he stayed up, although he usually went to bed promptly at 10 o'clock, and talked with Madame Telle and M[...] At half past 10, he nodded his head while sitting on the sofa and said nothing more.
So I guess the "fortunate" part is that he didn't die alone: he had friends over and was enjoying himself when the stroke hit, and the stroke was instantaneous. (We talked last time about an instantaneous death being okay in his case, because the need to make a proper confession wasn't imperative.)
Re: Karl Ernst's death
Date: 2025-05-03 11:44 am (UTC)Re: Karl Ernst's death
Date: 2025-05-05 01:46 am (UTC)Re: Karl Ernst's death
Date: 2025-05-06 03:40 pm (UTC)The next morning Diderot felt better than he had for months. After spending the morning receiving visits...the philosophe sat down with Toinette to his first proper meal in weeks: soup, boiled mutton, and some chicory. Having eaten well, Diderot then looked at Toinette and asked her to pass him an apricot. Fearing that he had already eaten too much, she tried to dissuade him from continuing the meal. Diderot reportedly replied wistfully: “What the devil type of harm can it do to me now?” Popping some of the forbidden fruit in his mouth, he then rested his head on his hand, reached out for some more stewed cherries, and died. While having anything but a heroic death à la Socrates, Diderot had nonetheless expired in a way that was perfectly compatible with his philosophy: without a priest, with humor, and while attempting to eke out one last bit of pleasure from life.